MUMBAI, (Reuters) – India is keen to make friends with the “liberal” world but needs Russia’s support to protect its borders. This was what Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Finance Minister told Bloomberg during a Washington interview.

India sources most of its military hardware and equipment from Russia. The West, however, has rejected Western countries’ requests to restrict bilateral relations to Moscow following the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

The West has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for refusing to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of the Ukraine’s devastating civil war.

Sitharaman claimed that India was primarily concerned with protecting its regional interests, despite having longstanding border issues with China and Pakistan.

Sitharaman made reference to China and Pakistan, telling Bloomberg that he had a neighbor who joined hands with another neighbor, which both are hostile to me. India needs to be strong enough in order to safeguard itself, especially when there is a Russia-Ukraine conflict.

She said that India wants to become friends with Europe and the Western, Free, and Liberal World, but not as someone who needs help every now and then.

Sitharaman spoke at Friday’s meeting in Washington, USA where she was attending the spring meetings of both the International Monetary Fund & the World Bank.

The United States is a traditional power that sought to reconcile relations with arch-regional rivals India, Pakistan and has since cultivated strategic ties to New Delhi in an effort to combat China.

Boris Johnson from the British Prime Minister was this week in India to boost security and trade relations. Johnson said that India was unlikely to end long-standing ties it has with Russia.